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"Labor
Day differs in every essential way from the other
holidays of the year in any country," said
Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of
the American Federation of Labor. "All other
holidays are in a more or less degree connected with
conflicts and battles of man's prowess over man, of
strife and discord for greed and power, of glories
achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day...is
devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race,
or nation."
Labor
Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of
the labor movement and is dedicated to the social
and economic achievements of American workers. It
constitutes a yearly national tribute to the
contributions workers have made to the strength,
prosperity, and well-being of our country.
More
than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance,
there is still some doubt as to who first proposed
the holiday for workers.
Some
records show that Peter J. McGuire, general
secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation
of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor
those "who from rude nature have delved and
carved all the grandeur we behold."
But
Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not
gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew
Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the
holiday. Recent research seems to support the
contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary
of Local 344 of the International Association of
Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday
in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central
Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the
Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and
appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and
picnic.
The
first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday,
September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance
with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The
Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day
holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
In
1884 the first Monday in September was selected as
the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central
Labor Union urged similar organizations in other
cities to follow the example of New York and
celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that
date. The idea spread with the growth of labor
organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated
in many industrial centers of the country.
Through
the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to
Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came
through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and
1886. From them developed the movement to secure
state legislation. The first state bill was
introduced into the New York legislature, but the
first to become law was passed by Oregon on February
21, 1887. During the year four more states —
Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York
— created the Labor Day holiday by legislative
enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut,
Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By
1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in
honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year,
Congress passed an act making the first Monday in
September of each year a legal holiday in the
District of Columbia and the territories.
The
form that the observance and celebration of Labor
Day should take were outlined in the first proposal
of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the
public "the strength and esprit de corps of the
trade and labor organizations" of the
community, followed by a festival for the recreation
and amusement of the workers and their families.
This became the pattern for the celebrations of
Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were
introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon
the economic and civic significance of the holiday.
Still later, by a resolution of the American
Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday
preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and
dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects
of the labor movement.
The
character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone
a change in recent years, especially in large
industrial centers where mass displays and huge
parades have proved a problem. This change, however,
is more a shift in emphasis and medium of
expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union
officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and
government officials are given wide coverage in
newspapers, radio, and television.
The
vital force of labor added materially to the highest
standard of living and the greatest production the
world has ever known and has brought us closer to
the realization of our traditional ideals of
economic and political democracy. It is appropriate,
therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day
to the creator of so much of the nation's strength,
freedom, and leadership — the American worker.
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